Here’s the link to the Dec 6th Devotional.
You can check out the whole project at the link in my previous post. These are so well done. They’ve been a great on-ramp to some fresh thinking about Jesus here at the opening of a new year. Hope you can enjoy a few of these. These aren’t sentimental. It’s actually the kind of thing I had in mind when I first started The Boiler Room. By the way, Bertha did just ignite here next to me this morning!
I just sent my oldest kid back to college yesterday. We celebrated his 25th birthday on the 30th of December. Next time the Perry’s are all together there’ll be three generations in my immediate clan! Aaron and Savannah are expecting their first baby somewhere at the beginning of April! The rest of us will be firsts too – Phoebe and Silas our other two kids will be Aunt Phoebe and Uncle Silas for the first time. Cheryl and I will be something… Grams and Pops… for the first time? We haven’t made that awkward decision yet. It’s about as hard to figure out what to call yourself as grandparents as I remember figuring out what to call our kids when we had them!
So when is Christmas over?
It’s never really over as long as we await our Savior’s return. And really, anything we do to celebrate his first coming helps us long for his return. Whatever does that for us… is Christmas enough for me! In these outrageously cold post-Christmas days I’ve been enjoying a set of advent devotionals one of my teammates turned me on to back in November. They are a terrific combination of visual art, poetry, thoughtful reflection and music. I wasn’t able to “open every little advent door” and listen each day, but I’m definitely playing catch up between now and Jan 7th. You might like doing that too if you have some time.
Here’s the link to the Advent Project from Biola University’s Center for Christianity, Culture and the Arts. There’s a button that will allow to you see thumbnails of every piece. Here’s how I enjoying them best: Clear away distractions from where you’re sitting. Light a candle and just be quiet for a few minutes. Have a means for journaling nearby – you’ll have lots of thoughts to process because each piece is just packed with artful/thoughtful elements. Look at the painting for a few minutes. Read the poem. Reflect. Turn on the music and keep enjoying the curator’s reflections. Enjoy! No Christmas isn’t over!
Thought I would use the remaining days of 2017 to post some random interest connections from the GFM website. Many of my donors are not new to InterVarsity but are very new to ministry among graduates and faculty. As I’m getting more familiar with things GFM, I’m surprised to find all kinds of people, groups and events that reflect the vastly creative and thoughtful world of Christians in academia. InterVarsity’s most recent vision statement aims to bring God’s kingdom to every corner of every campus. These posts will reflect some of what that lofty endeavor entails.
In a conversation I had earlier this fall with a Christian Social Work professor at UNO, I encountered the strategic nature of academic societies. These are groups of Christians connected within a given discipline united by their commitment to being uniquely Christian in identity and influence. If you are a Christian professional working in engineering, medicine, or education for example, have you considered searching out other like-minded believers in your discipline? There are dozens of different groups located at the link immediately below. This is one of the networking functions of a group like GFM.
Here’s a link to InterVarsity’s resource page on Christian Professional and Academic Societies. Take a minute to scroll down through the page and see what you connect with. Or maybe you know a Christian faculty member, professional or grad student in one of these fields. Send them a copy of the link. If you’re aware of someone starting a graduate program help us get them connected to the GFM work at the school they’ll be attending.
Here’s my latest MPD update. Click here for an easier to read version.
Now and then I pull out my journal from exactly a year ago and read the entries surrounding and including that date. Dec 5th, 2016 was a very heavy entry (pic). I was processing the final days of my employment at Christ Community Church while at the same time begging God for help in my job search. In the interval between being served my severance from CCC (June 13th, 2016) till the day of my provisional appointment with InterVarsity (Feb 18th, 2017) I applied for a total of 39 jobs. 39 applications. Dozens of interviews. One offer. The two rejection notices I journaled about on Dec 5th were somewhere around options #27 and #28. The others I mention waiting on trickled back into my journal a couple of weeks later. No. And No. It’s cringy reading to revisit what I wrote.
I was actually offered my current job in late October, 2016. My hiring supervisor was a model of prayer, patience and confidence in God. Thank you Don Paul Gross! I was wrestling with God and myself over being called back to InterVarstiy. Back to the university. Back to students and faculty. And, yes, back to finding my own resources for employment. “Could I really go back to support raising?”
As my posts have spelled out over the past months… Yes, I could return. Not only to my former ministry, but to that precarious thing we call fundraising. Turns out I needn’t have been so intimidated. Finding $97.3K isn’t as impossible as I thought.
InterVarsity has always placed a high value on training and resources. One piece I encountered in my MPD coaching is a little booklet I finally took the time to read last week. Here are a couple of excellent quotes I want to harp about if you don’t mind. This is from Henri Nouwen professor and spiritual formation champion – a transcription of a talk he gave on The Spirituality of Fundraising. I love his perspective.
It’s so true that money conversations can be awkward. My recent experience has been a mixture of mostly positive and affirming interaction, sprinkled with a very small handful of awkward misfires. As of today my tracking report from InterVarsity lists just over 40 names. Those 40 names have come through months of conversations I’ve had with nearly twice that number. As I’ve spoken with people I’ve been relieved to rediscover how freeing conversations actually are when people get excited about the vision and mission they’re being invited into. Nouwen insists that asking for resources is a matter of asking people to invest in the Kingdom of God.
The more a funding conversation revolves only around monetary need, the more it does feel like you’re trying to talk with people about sex! But the more I’ve been able to rant and rave about what God is calling GFM to do in the university, the less awkward it is to talk dollars with people.
I have loved the time I’ve spent in conversations casting vision for Graduate Faculty Ministries. It really is a unique target audience most haven’t considered. What would it look like to reach every corner of every campus including the most exclusive places occupied by graduate programs, researchers and professors?
To all my stake holders and ministry partners who’ve spoken with me and decided to be generous with your resources – thank you. Thank you for making the time talking about this a delight, not a burden. Please continue to support me, resource me, encourage me and propel me on my way. My prayer is that you are experiencing the joy of watching God’s kingdom advance. May his kingdom overflow and his abundant grace bring life and light to some very unlit places in our world.
PS – If you’d like your own copy of Nouwen’s booklet, click here and email me your street address. I’ll have one shipped to you!
Click here to be taken to my donations page at InterVarsity.
That evening I drove across town to spend the night with an old college roommate and his family. For nostalgia’s sake, I made two dozen of my famous peanut butter chocolate chip monsters for them. A mutual friend and fellow guitar lover brought over some awesome locally grown popcorn and a few IPAs. I talked about GFM and passed on my gratitude for my friend’s generosity (He and his wife were on my very first prospect list the second I thought about doing this again). Oh, and I brought a pound of Bakers Chocolate from the great state of Nebraska (we’re famous for more than just corn). Stayed up late pitching a book idea to them.
6 days. 12 stops. 35 people. And a lot of miles.
A couple of bonus stops along the way. InterVarsity’s National Service Center in Madison Wisconsin.
Had some time to kill in Indy. Spent half a morning at Rolls Royce at their aircraft engines display. Totally cool.
Can you answer the following based solely on the clues appearing in these pictures? This morning begins a 6-day fundraising tour touching down in Bloomington-Normal, Crawfordsville, Indianapolis, Fishers, Kokomo, North Manchester, Fox Lake, Madison, and Rockford!
Leave your answers in a comment if you dare. Or just email me. Have a great week!
InterVarsity’s annual report. The view from the top. If you’d like to see the whole document, here’s a link to all 33 pages. Great images, info charts and articles. Might take a while to download depending on your device. More on this later perhaps, but the page below can help you get a feel for things if you’re new to InterVarsity.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/q3taxupuavzr57f/Annual_Report_2016-2017.pdf?dl=0
Here are a few happenings since my last post. Kind of random order. Funding news. Ministry gigs (GFM and otherwise). Some fun happenings on the way from autumn to winter.
Click here for a readable version of the info-graph. The good news buried in the details is that I’m sufficiently funded to be on payroll and benefits with InterVarsity as of the first of October. I’m currently at 3/4 pay working 30 hours a week. The yellow chunk of the chart above represents about $23,000 in annual support yet to find before I can launch full time into my complete job description.
Follow this link if interested in making a donation to InterVarsity
I’m so grateful to be able to transition back into InterVarsity ministry with a growing team of people like you making that possible. I’m hoping future posts will be more about staff teams, students and faculty members with slightly fewer info-graphs about my funding needs!
Last week I got to sit in on a small gathering of Occupational Therapy students who have been meeting monthly with a christian faculty member. Creighton University’s OT department is part of the School of Pharmacy and Health Professions. A group of 15 or so mostly OT 1 and OT 2 students gets together for dinner. It was great fun to meet them and get their group on my radar here in the Omaha/Lincoln area. My goal is to help them find GFM resources useful for their mission. While the group isn’t affiliated with GFM, I will say their Bible study looked amazingly familiar to me.
I still love being a pastor. One great perk to my years of ministry at Christ Community was that I got the chance to do a lot more of this! I don’t think I’m done with weddings, but I’ll probably not get to do them like I used to. We’ll see. Michael and Katie are a very special couple to me. They’d arranged for me to do their wedding since before my leaving CCC. I don’t think I’m done being a part of this family’s story. Maybe more on that later.
Last Saturday, Oct 21st was about the fastest weather turn around I’ve ever seen. This picturesque outdoor pagoda was the setting for a freezing cold downpour just about two hours before the event! I reminded the crowd that if Husker fans could do this for three hours, we could make it for 37 minutes in 59 degree weather. We didn’t lose anyone to frostbite. And certainly none of the brides-maids passed out from the heat (been there with at least one of my weddings).
Cheryl and I have a terrific friendship with this little guys mom and dad. We were honored to be asked to do a dedication service for little Malachi. About 30 people descended on this family last weekend. Cheryl and I had a few comments to share. Another friend shared some scripture and a blessing. We prayed and gave this young man over to God’s watch-care.
Malachi is one of those cool names in the Hebrew language. It means “my messenger”. As is often the case in scripture, Malachi’s name becomes a theological play on words. At the beginning of the oracle, “Malachi” appears to be the title of the prophecy named after its author. But the name/word appears a couple more times referring, not to Malachi himself, but “a messenger who is coming before the day of the LORD.” This messenger is tagged as “Elijah” – yet in the future tense. Another Elijah will come (even though THE Elijah had already come) to announce the coming of the LORD.
Three Malachis…
The OT minor prophet is Malachi #2. The Malachi called Elijah was actually the first of God’s messengers (Malachi #1). And Malachi #3 spoken of in the future tense (by Malachi #2) turns out to be who? John the Baptist (Mark 1:2-4). The irony wasn’t lost on this family because their little Malachi’s older brother just happens to be named Elijah! He turns three in March. SO if this family follows suit with biblical prophetic ancestry do you know what that means? It must mean their third child is going to be a boy… and his name is going to be John! I might as well start writing a devotional for his baby dedication coming sometime in a couple more years. I love peaking into salvation history before its written! (Of course I’m kidding).
Thanks for reading. Shoot me a text or an email if you have comments or questions.
Be blessed. Be well.
Welcome to the Perry Boiler Room for those of you who might be reading this for the first time. PBR is a quiet place for me to share my life and work with friends, family and stakeholders. The blog has been up and running for few months now, but at any point if want to backtrack through earlier posts feel free to catch up.
Since March I’ve been collecting team mates for a new chapter in my life – Graduate Faculty Ministry with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Many of you are new to IVCF having joined my timeline somewhere in the past 11 years. Many of you have been through this with me before. Whichever part you’ve played, please know that on the brink of my first official month of employment with InterVarsity I am so grateful for your presence in my life! The last 15 months have been quite an adventure. You’ve blessed me and my family far more than you realize.
On Sept 16th, my supervisor decided that our funding was looking strong enough to begin employment at 3/4 time. I’ll be on payroll but not allowed to work my full job description till I’m at 100% of my budget. 100% means all the resources for a year’s worth of budget are either in the coffers or pledged. As of today I’m at about 68% and hoping to find the rest in time to start the full job, full time in January.
The chunk of GFM I’m joining is blue above – that’s the South/Central Region. The chunk of the chunk I’m preparing to supervise is the Central Area Team. Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri. Currently there are seven of us GFM staff in these four states. Lots of room for growth. More on my team in coming posts. God is doing terrific things among med students at University of Iowa, faculty and internationals in the “little apple” (K-State), a Veritas Forum is coming this spring at Kansas University in Lawrence while a thriving faculty ministry is happening at Wash-U in St. Louis.
This summer I got my first look at “them” at a regional staff conference in Nashville. About 30 of us across the 17 state region gathered for 4 days of training and networking. I’m honored to be a peer with such gifted, bright and experienced staff and look forward to learning from them in the years ahead.
Thanks so much for helping me get here. As I sit in the boiler room banging in this post please know how grateful I am for you and your family. Thank you for checking in with me countless times these past 15 months. Thanks for praying for me, coaching me and encouraging me. Thanks for welcoming me to this new space I now call my vocational home. Feel free to hit the comment button and leave me a thought or two – or send me an email if you’d rather.
Be blessed.
Be well.
Interested in donating to my work click here.
Nashville…famous for its music and lively night life on Broadway Street! Where else can you walk in and sample a $12K guitar…
PBR 